Inner Images in the Family Constellations Process

An Inner Image

The family constellations process uses images and the body experience rather than words or narrative. The first image that presents at the beginning of a client’s process is that of their internal picture, the inner image of their current family system.

This first setting up of the client’s inner image gives an immediate live representation of the internal connections of the client’s family system. It can reveal the texture and quality of these relationships. From this first image the facilitator can further refine whatever working hypothesis was formed during the initial questioning around the client’s issue.

The shape and spatial placement of representatives in the client’s inner image slowly shifts and changes through the feedback and movement from these live representatives. As the family constellations process progresses, what has been hidden slowly becomes visible. The hidden dynamics of the family system are revealed.

Slowly the family constellations process moves toward a resolution where the inner image is one where each member of the family has found a good place in the system. This is measured by the bodily ease and comfort that each representative feels. The resolving image is a new inner reality that the client can take with them into their outer world (Hellinger 1998).